


Sing That Song for Me (The Only One You Know)

by J (j_writes)



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/F, Post-Mockingjay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 23:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_writes/pseuds/J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Welcome!" he called, saluting the walkway with his bottle, "to Annie Odair's Home for Wayward Victors!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sing That Song for Me (The Only One You Know)

**Author's Note:**

> written for Fandom Stocking based on prompts by Thelinesoflearning (who requested Annie/anyone and chosen families) and Shadowcat (who requested Haymitch & Annie and complicated happy endings). 
> 
> (as probably can be expected from fic about Annie, contains discussion of trauma and flashbacks.)

She found herself asking about the sea, and from then it was only a matter of time until she was packing her bags for Four.

District 13 had been an area of seafarers once as well, and although their history was sparse and well-guarded, there were some there who were only too pleased to share with her their knowledge and folklore of the years before the division of the districts, when Thirteen was as proud and seaworthy as her home in Four.

"Are there any roads left that are safe to take to the coast?" she asked one day, and although the answer was no, simply asking the question was enough to let her know that she was ready.

She returned to Four, to a house where she could hear the sea but not see it, because it still haunted her nightmares, but she could no longer bear the thought of raising Finn anywhere but a place where he would know the waves and the tides. The district had shifted in the time since she left, people leaving by way of the still-forming roads to seek their fortunes in districts they had only heard of, and it was simple enough to find a house that had been left behind. She made a home out of it for the two of them, weaving nets for the fishermen of the village, trading them for food and necessities for a while, until her mind grew unquiet again and she longed for something less familiar to do with her hands. 

It was from the fishermen that she learned of the hospital, from a captain who had injured his leg, a young mate who had gotten pregnant, a tackle merchant whose child had fallen ill. It was run by a woman from Twelve, said one. Still looking for help, said another, and once Annie learned that it was Mrs. Everdeen behind the operation, a woman who had been so calm and sure and competent in the face of everything that had happened in Thirteen, it was only a few days before Annie worked up the courage to walk the few miles to town and enter the main office, bold in a way she hadn't felt in years. "I'd like to help," she said, and Mrs. Everdeen took in the sight of her, hands worn from work, Finn peeking over her shoulder from where she'd strapped him to her back.

"It's good to see you, Annie," she said, and smiled like she meant it.  
______________

"Annie Cresta!"

The plate she was holding shattered as it slipped from her fingers into the sink, forgotten as she lunged for a knife from the block. Finn immediately began to cry at the sound, and she stepped between him and the door, brandishing the knife and considering their escape routes before she took in the familiar tilt of the man making his way up her walkway, the belligerently jovial tone of his voice.

"Annie Cresta Odair!"

"Fucking _hell_ , Haymitch," she hissed, letting the knife drop to the table.

She leaned against one of the kitchen chairs, willing her heart to stop racing, and reached out to run a hand distractedly through Finn's hair, calming him and herself. When she undid the locks on her door and threw it open, she narrowly missed hitting Haymitch directly in the face with it. He rocked back on his heels, grinning at her and holding up an open bottle of wine.

"Brought you a housewarming present," he said pleasantly. "Got a little thirsty on the way, though." He held it out like he expected her to take it, and she gave him a withering look. "It's a long walk from town," he offered, and then his eyes fell on Finn, who was still whimpering, but was tilting his head in interest at the visitor. "Oh," he said, letting the hand with the bottle drop to his side. "Would you look at that? He's almost a person."

Annie left Haymitch leaning there in the doorway and went to retrieve Finn, gathering him out of his chair and tucking him against her side. "You scared him," she said reproachfully.

"I do that," Haymitch agreed. "With kids." He didn't say it with any kind of inflection, but raised the bottle to his lips again before he'd meet her eyes. "You look good," he said eventually.

"You look awful," she replied, propping Finn up with one arm and going to work gathering the pieces of plate into a pile beside the sink with the other hand. She didn't look at Haymitch as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

He lifted a shoulder, and slumped down into one of her kitchen chairs. "It's summer," he said, as if that explained everything.

"So you decided on a beach vacation?" she prompted. Finn tugged at her hair, making eyes at Haymitch over her shoulder, and she watched his reflection in the mirror, taking in the way he wouldn't quite look Finn in the face. "Or you realized this was the first summer you wouldn't see my husband, and you figured you'd come to see how version 2.0 was doing?" He made a noncommittal noise, and she knew she'd hit a nerve. She kicked the trash barrel under the pile of ceramic and swept it all away, then crossed the room to take the wine bottle from in front of him. "We're not here to fix things for you, Haymitch." She lifted the bottle to her lips and took a sip, then dumped the rest of it down the drain.

"Don't – " he started, reaching out, but he was too late. He slumped back, defeated. "That wasn't exactly cheap, you know."

"You're not exactly poor," she pointed out.

He raised an eyebrow, taking a look around her house. "You either," he pointed out. "What's with the bungalow?"

She shrugged and took the seat across from him, settling Finn into her lap. "The Village was too big, and empty," she said. She didn't add _and close to the water_ , but she was pretty sure he gathered as much.

"Funny," he said, "mine seems too small, and crowded."

"Have people been moving into the other houses?" she asked.

"Nope," he replied succinctly, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Ah." Life with Katniss and Peeta wasn't the most peaceful, then. She found it hard to be surprised at that news. "Well, I don't imagine you'll find Four to be particularly restful," she said, but she waved at the guest room. "But you're welcome to try." He looked vaguely surprised, and she wondered if he'd thought she was going to send him back on his way as soon as he arrived. "I get up early for work," she warned him, "and neither of us is particularly good at sleeping through the night." She bounced Finn for emphasis, and he babbled.

"That makes three of us," Haymitch said. Then he tilted his head, finally catching her words. "You have a job?"

"At the hospital," she said, and he raised an eyebrow.

"No kidding. Laurel put you to work, did she?"

"I wanted to help," Annie said, and the smile he gave her was almost fond.

"Of course you did, sweetheart," he said. "An admirable quality. One that some others I know could take a few lessons in."

She didn't bother to hide her answering smile. "How are they?" she asked, taking the opening he'd given her, and he grimaced.

"They're…" he seemed to consider it for a few moments. "Getting there," he finally decided on. "Wherever _there_ is."

She frowned suddenly, looking at him. "They do know you're here, right?" she asked, and the way he carefully didn’t look at her was answer enough. "Haymitch! They probably think you're dead."

"Probably," he agreed. "Must be a relief, right?"

She pushed her chair back, settling an alarmed-looking Finn into his lap and heading for her telephone. "I'm calling them right now."

He almost stood, but looked completely unsure of what to do with Finn, so instead he held onto him and frowned. "You don't even know their number."

"Laurel does," she pointed out.

"Look," he held out a hand. "I'll handle this, okay?" She looked at him skeptically, and he carefully held Finn out to her. "You handle _this_ ," he said, "and I'll call Effie. She'll let them know that I'm alive without telling them where I am."

"Why – " she began, but cut herself off as he all but stuffed Finn into her arms. "All right," she said dubiously, and carried Finn into the living room, half listening as Haymitch picked up the phone and dialed. 

His conversation with Effie was too low for her to hear the particulars, but she caught enough key words that she thought he might have actually been telling the truth. When he joined her in the living room, he looked tired, and sagged into the couch next to her as he watched Finn stacking blocks into a precarious tower.

"Feel better?" she asked, mostly to needle him, and the look he gave her wasn't quite a glare. 

"Do _you_?" he shot back. 

"A little," she said. He made a face at her, and she shrugged. "If it were me," she said, "I'd want to know."

"They're not you," he said with feeling, and she smiled at him warningly.

"Living with me is no picnic, Haymitch," she said.

"Likewise," he pointed out. He sighed. "Look, I appreciate you letting me stay, but it wasn't my intention. I just…" he shrugged. "I'm used to not being in Twelve around now. I thought I'd see if you and the little man were holding up all right."

"We are," she said succinctly, and the smile he gave her was sad but almost proud.

"I see that."

She stood and scooped Finn up, tossing him over her shoulder to make him giggle. "It's bedtime for some people in this house," she said, and half expected Haymitch to follow her suggestion. "Say good night, Finn." Finn kicked his feet and said something unintelligible, and Haymitch was smiling as she hauled him off to his bedroom.

When she returned, the smile had disappeared, and he was at the kitchen table, looking through the news bulletins she'd collected from town. "We don't have television service," she said by way of explanation, and dragged one of the chairs to the cupboard, climbing onto it and reaching for the tallest shelf.

She brought down a dusty bottle of rum, and watched Haymitch's eyes light up. She filled a glass for each of them and set them on the table with a dull thunk.

"Good to see you," she said, and drained her glass in one gulp.  
______________

It worked, for a while, the two of them existing in the same space, revolving around Finn and the not so distant ocean, Annie heading off to work in the morning and coming home to find Haymitch frying up fish for dinner, a bottle of rum in his hand. The first time she left Finn with him to go to town and sell nets, he was terrified, but she returned to find them napping on the couch, Finn tucked against Haymitch's shoulder with his hand fisted into his hair.

She still woke in the night to the nightmares, and he was usually already awake, pacing the living room or sitting out on the porch listening to the waves. Giving Finn a bath had always been more of a chore than it should have been, and the first time she panicked at the sight of him waist deep in the water while Haymitch was there, he carefully walked her out to the couch, then returned to splash in the tub with Finn, both of them emerging dripping and smiling, and she couldn't help but laugh at the pair of them, Finn with his hair sticking straight up on his head, Haymitch looking more or less like a bedraggled cat.

He drank, but usually once Finn was asleep, or off on the beach, and she got used to him disappearing for hours at a time and returning to fall face down on his bed or the couch, waving vaguely at her as he passed.

He made phone calls, sometimes, a bottle in his hand and a fighting tone in his voice, and she could tell just by the way he talked that they weren't always to the same people, because when he called Effie he was flat out mean, and when he called Laurel he was nostalgic, and when he called Johanna he was somewhere in the middle.

It shouldn't have surprised her, the night the knock came at the door as Finn and Haymitch were dozing off together beside her on the couch, but she grabbed the knife from Haymitch's holster and was holding it out before he even started awake. 

"No, 's'okay," he mumbled, "I think I know who it is."

"Hi, Annie," said Johanna when she opened the door, leaning against the doorframe and holding out a bottle of wine. 

"At least you had the courtesy not to drink it first," Annie replied. She took the wine and set aside the knife, and enjoyed the way Johanna's face went through a complicated series of expressions as she stepped into the house to find Haymitch sprawled out on the couch with Finn curled against his shoulder.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," she said, and Haymitch grinned at her.

"Hey there, princess," he greeted.

Johanna turned to Annie instead. "Right, this is some kind of a joke?" she suggested, and Annie shrugged. 

"He showed up here," she said. "And now so did you." She held up the bottle. "Wine?"

They got drunk, the three of them, once Finn had been put to bed, drunker than Annie had been in years, and Johanna didn't quite tell them why she had shown up, but when Haymitch offered his reasoning of, "I don't know, it's summer," she nodded fervently.

"You should stop calling me," she told him, and he grinned at her lazily, tipping his head against the back of the couch.

"Making your boytoy jealous?" he guessed, and she made a face.

"More like just pissing me off," she said.

"I can tell," he said, "by the way you dropped everything to show up here," and she stretched her leg across the couch to kick him. 

"I came to see Annie," she said, tipping her head back to beam radiantly at Annie upside down over the arm of the couch, and Annie smiled back at her. "Anyway," she said, sobering and looking at Haymitch. "I didn't have anything to drop. Unlike some people."

Annie looked at him, but he just lifted his glass to take another drink and eyed Johanna over the rim of it. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said flatly, and she raised a shoulder in a delicate shrug. 

"Probably not," she agreed. She reached out to poke her with her toes again. "Now scoot. You're on my bed, and I traveled a long way today."

He stood obligingly, but instead of turning in the direction of his room, he grabbed a bottle of rum from the pantry and shuffled out onto the porch. Annie shrugged apologetically. "He doesn't sleep much," she said. She piled some blankets on the foot of the couch, and Johanna wrapped one around herself in a cocoon. "You could probably take the guest room bed," she offered. "He barely uses it."

Johanna shook her head and burrowed into the couch. "No, this is good." She pressed her back against the cushions, and Annie nodded, understanding. 

"Good night, Johanna," she said, and went to sleep, but not before leaving a glass of water and a couple of pills by the side of each of their beds.  
______________

"I'm going for a swim," Johanna announced one morning, a week or so after she arrived, and Haymitch looked up blearily over his coffee mug. 

"I must have heard you wrong," he said. "I thought you said you were going for a swim."

Johanna raised her chin, looking at him defiantly. "We're in Four, Haymitch. What do you do down at the beach, play with yourself?"

"Sometimes," he said with a leer, and Annie blushed, busying herself fixing Finn's breakfast and pretending not to listen to them as Haymitch let out a noise at Johanna kicking him under the table. "I fish," he pointed out. "I never bothered learning how to swim."

"Oh, you should," Annie said, looking up. "It's so – " _freeing,_ she wanted to say, _peaceful_ , but all she could see was a wall of water rushing towards her, engulfing her, sweeping Finn away until she couldn't see him anymore, couldn't hear him, could only gasp in breath to call his name and get a mouthful of salt water instead. She let out a strangled gasp, and the bowl slipped from her fingers, scattering grains and banana across the floor. "Oh," she said distractedly, "I'm so sorry." She dropped to her knees, intending to gather up the mess, but instead she felt the wave crashing over her head, enveloping her, making it impossible to drag in a breath.

She managed to get to her feet and propelled herself forward, pushing past hands that reached to steady her. She hit the ground again on the solid wood of her porch, dry and firm and supportive under her, hands reaching to touch the grain of the wood, tracing it with her fingers, so similar to the deck of the ship she'd spent a lifetime on as a child.

She curled up there, catching her breath, slowly coming to the realization that the sound of the sea was still far off, and Finn was babbling happily in the kitchen, safe and dry and warm, and Johanna was crouched in front of her, leaning back against the railing. "I'm sorry," she began, "I just – " but Johanna just shrugged.

"It happens," she said easily. "I'm sorry I set you off. I was going to see if you wanted to go with me, actually – " at Annie's look of alarm, she continued, "not to go swimming, just to come down to the beach, maybe bring Finn. Let him get a look." She shrugged. "But I guess that's not such a good idea."

"No," Annie said, touching the solid deck again, reminding herself that the waves were well contained in the sea where they belonged, "Probably not." She breathed carefully, then looked up at Johanna. "But maybe we could try it out without Finn. He was – " she hesitated, not wanting to have to explain the wave sweeping him away, but Johanna was already nodding.

"No Junior," she agreed, "got it." She stood, lingering for a moment over Annie until Annie sat back against the house, breathing steadily, and then she was nodding, disappearing inside, and Annie could hear her talking stridently to Haymitch in the kitchen, the sound of dishes clattering. She almost got up to go clean the floor, but Johanna appeared at the door again, offering her a hand up. 

"Haymitch is on it," she said authoritatively, and Annie wrinkled her nose dubiously.

"You leave him with the kid, right?" Johanna asked, "sometimes, when you go to work?"

"Yes, but – " Annie turned back to object, but Haymitch was standing in the doorway with Finn slung over his shoulder, Finn kicking his legs and giggling. She couldn't help the brief smile it brought to her face, and Haymitch waved as Johanna took her arm and steered her down the walk towards the beach. She reached out for her latest net on the way, tucking it protectively against her side, and Johanna didn't make any comment.

It was a short walk, through the neighborhood, past some of the fishermen's houses that she circulated to sell her nets, and some of their children were outside playing in the street. They waved to her and she waved back, and felt Johanna watching her speculatively.

"What?" she finally asked, and Johanna shrugged.

"This little town you have here," she said. "It's so… _cute_." She said it like an insult, and Annie smiled.

"I like that Finn will have kids to play with in the neighborhood," she said, "when he's older. I thought about staying in the Village, but – "

Johanna shuddered. "If it's anything like mine, it's a ghost town," she said. "That's part of why I had to get out."

Annie didn't ask about the other part. The road grew more uneven as they reached the beach, and she could see just the slightest sliver of ocean over the rise ahead of them. She paused, catching her breath, and Johanna kept step with her, peering into the abandoned gardens along the walkway of planks leading into the dunes.

"These aren't doing too well," she said, cupping a leaf and studying it. 

"Maybe they need someone who knows plants to take a look at them," Annie replied slyly, and Johanna bumped against her companionably, making a face.

"I'm a gardener like you're an angler, Cresta," she said, but Annie could see her inspecting the plot of land as they made their way up the walk to the beach.

They paused at the rise of the hill, and Annie reached out for Johanna's hand almost reflexively, hanging onto it and standing there for a long time, watching the waves roll gently into the shore. She breathed out slowly, and let herself laugh a little.

"It's different," she said.

"Than you remember it?" Johanna asked, and Annie shook her head, laughing more. 

"No," she said, "than the arena."

Johanna tilted her head to look at Annie, and then she was laughing too, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and steering her down towards the damp strip of sand. She didn't say anything like _of course it is,_ though, she just took hold of Annie's hand as they got closer to the edge of the water, each step making her grip a little stronger, a little sharper, until Annie was wincing at the force. 

By the time they reached where the edge of the surf was curling towards their toes, Annie had relaxed, and it was Johanna who was a ball of tension. Annie squeezed her hand lightly and said, "You don't have to – " but Johanna was already kicking off her shoes and stepping into the surf, biting her lip so hard Annie would be surprised if she wasn't drawing blood.

"Yes," she said determinedly, "I do." She stepped deeper into the water, and Annie followed, feeling the tide wash sand over her toes and slowly cover them over. 

Johanna breathed slowly beside her, gradually easing the tension out of her body until she carefully let go of Annie's hand and stepped away, towards the sea, looking out at the horizon. "Yeah, fuck _you_!" she called, her voice lost immediately to the sea winds, and Annie grinned, her hair blowing across her face as Johanna looked back at her. "Fuck _all_ of you," Johanna called, and Annie had known her long enough to not be surprised when she stripped out of her clothes, tossed them behind herself onto the drier sand, and dove into the surf.

Annie had a brief moment of panic, waiting for her to surface, but Johanna appeared from the waves laughing and sharp-eyed, stepping out of them like something out of the folk tales Annie had been raised on, and she felt a shiver from something entirely different than cold or fear as Johanna stalked toward her and tossed an arm around her shoulders, starkly nude and pale against the sand.

"Your turn," she said too close to Annie's ear, and Annie shook her head, looking out at the endless waves.

"Not today," she said, but she looked down at her legs, covered in water nearly to the knees, and she gave Johanna a matching smile. 

They sat on the beach for a while, drying, Johanna spread out on top of her clothes under the sun, Annie with her knees tucked up, tying knots into her net, and when they returned home, she gathered Finn to her and let him tug at her windswept hair, and she whispered a promise of the sea against his warm dry cheek.  
______________

She was cooking dinner one night when she heard Haymitch yelling from the porch, and Johanna groaned from the living room, where she was watching Finn.

"What now?" she asked, and Annie opened the window slightly to make out his words.

"Welcome!" he was calling, "to Annie Odair's Home for Wayward Victors!"

Annie pulled the pan from the stove to cool, and made her way out onto the porch in time to see him saluting the walkway with his bottle. Neither Katniss nor Peeta looked amused. "Use those hunting skills to track me down, sweetheart?" he asked, tipping back in his rocking chair, and Katniss gave him a withering look. 

"My mother told on you," she said flatly.

"Laurel never was any good at lying." He said with a sigh. "You come by it naturally," he said pointedly to Katniss, but she continued to look unimpressed.

"Hi, Annie," said Peeta from beside her, waving, and Annie lifted a hand in greeting. "Sorry to drop in like this." He nodded at Haymitch. "He hasn't been causing you too much trouble, has he?"

"He says, like I'm his _puppy_ ," Haymitch said, looking up at Annie, and she laid a hand on his shoulder to quiet him.

"You should come in," she said instead of responding directly. "We're about to eat."

It was a subdued meal, the five of them awkward around each other in new and exciting ways, and only Finn seemed happy to chat with everyone, but took a special liking to Peeta, reaching up to grab for his hair whenever Annie gave him a spare second. She shrugged apologetically at him. "He likes you," she said, and Peeta's face lit up in a way that made Katniss look pained.

Johanna and Katniss retreated to the porch after they ate, with Peeta joining Annie cleaning up the kitchen, and Haymitch settling onto the couch with Finn.

"We broke into his house because we thought he was dead," Peeta said conversationally, and Annie winced. 

"I'm – " she began, but he cut her off.

"His geese had broken into the back door," he continued, loud enough for Haymitch to hear him, "and they shit all over everything. We didn't clean any of it up. He'd left all his food to rot, so of course, the kitchen was a disaster area, and for all I know it still is. We were a little more concerned with what to do with his body, once we got upstairs to find out he'd drunk himself to death in the bathroom." He looked over at Haymitch. "Except it turned out that he hadn't. He'd just left." 

"Peeta – " Haymitch began, but Peeta dropped the pan he was washing into the sink and slammed out the front door onto the porch instead of letting him finish.

Annie raised an eyebrow at him, then retrieved the pan, rinsing it carefully and placing it upside down to dry. Haymitch was sitting there looking at Finn like he expected him to give him all the answers, so she crossed the room to take Finn from him, tucking him against her side.

"He's not going to be able to help you," she informed him, and as she made her way into Finn's room, she turned back just in time to see him reaching for a bottle instead.  
______________

"I'm sorry about last night," Peeta said from the doorway.

She'd spent the day at work, and the light was getting dim as she got home, but she gathered her netting anyway, settling onto the porch and tying soothing knots with Finn napping against her back as the sun set, while the smell of freshly baked bread and frying fish drifted out from the kitchen. She looked over her shoulder at Peeta, then patted the stairs beside her, waiting for him to settle in before she replied, "Thank you, but don't be." She shrugged and tossed the net over his lap to spread it out and keep track of her placement. "It's hardly the worst this house has seen in the past few months."

He winced. "Really?"

"He and Johanna seem to find screaming fights to be recreational," she told him. "And I woke up with a knife to his throat once."

The corner of his lips twitched. "I guess we're not that exciting at all, then."

"Not really, no," Annie agreed.

They were quiet for a while, Annie working, Finn fussing quietly, Peeta contemplating something until she looked at him pointedly. "I have a question," he finally admitted. "But you don't have to answer it."

"Go ahead," Annie said, keeping her eyes on the net.

"How did you keep track, before everyone showed up? Of what was real?"

She smiled down at her fingers softly. "Our problems are different," she pointed out. "I never need to be reminded of what's real." She looked up to meet his eyes. "Finnick is dead," she said bluntly. "That's enough to remind me of the rest." He winced, and she reached out to place a hand over his. "I'm glad you don't have the same reminder." He glanced over his shoulder towards the house, expression lightening slightly at the reminder that he and Katniss still had each other. "I have a question for you as well," she told him.

He nodded, turning his fingers over to catch hers lightly, and she let him because his hand was warm and broad, and so different from Finnick's that she could never mistake them.

"How do you believe them, when they tell you what's real?"

"I don't," he said, letting go of her hand. "Not always." He was quiet for a long while, watching the sky turn colors as the sun dipped towards the horizon. "That's why Haymitch left, you know."

She raised her eyebrows, returning to her work on the net. "I didn't know," she said mildly. "He never said."

"I thought something had happened to Katniss, while she was hunting, and he – " he broke off, twisting the net between his fingers.

"He told you it wasn't real," she finished, "and you didn't believe him." She tied another knot carefully and slowly, showing him, then handed him the loose ends to continue. He did, falteringly, but he nodded.

"I didn't take it well," he said, and she didn't need to remember the bruises she'd caught a glimpse of on Haymitch a few days after he arrived to know what an understatement it was. "After I got back, he was telling us this story – it wasn't anything important, just this story about Chaff, and Johanna, and – " he broke off, darting a glance at her, "some of the other Victors, just dumb stuff they got up to while they were in the Capitol, you know, but he left afterwards, and I turned to Katniss, and I said, 'Haymitch is a liar, real or not real?'"

"Real," Annie said quietly, and he nodded in response.

"There was still so much anger there when she said 'real,'" he said. "So I didn't believe him. And I – " he shook his head. "He left," he finished instead.

She lifted a shoulder in half a shrug. "So she's the only one you believe," she said. "Finnick was that, for me, for a long time. And Mags, about some things, but mostly only him."

"And now?" Peeta asked.

She opened her mouth to say, _and now there's no one,_ but she was caught by the memory of Johanna's hand warm and solid in hers as they stepped into the surf together, and she said nothing instead, for a long time. Finally, she jostled the baby on her back, and said, "Now, there's this one. We just have to get him speaking full sentences, and I’m sure I'll believe them."

Peeta smiled, and wiggled his fingers at Finn, who cooed charmingly. He sighed, shaking his head. "He's done a lot for us," he said helplessly, and Annie nodded.

"He has," she agreed. "But he's also done a lot _to_ you. If that's not something you're all prepared to live with, well…" she smiled at him. "I think you wouldn't be here."

She unwrapped Finn from her back and handed him to Peeta, who looked down at him like he was precious and breakable. "Keep an eye on this guy, would you? I'm going to go see how dinner's coming along." She ruffled Peeta's hair on her way by him into the house, and when she opened the door, she found Katniss standing there behind it, leaning against the wall and looking at her steadily.

"Wouldn't be here, huh?" she asked.

Annie shrugged. "Just a guess," she said. "Something brought you all this way, and although my son is charming, I'm pretty sure it wasn't him." She brushed by Katniss into the kitchen. "Look, there's a lot of messed up going on in this house right now, but if the reason you guys can't get your shit together is because nobody's bothered to inform Haymitch that he should probably leave the reality checks to you, then that sounds like a pretty simple fix to me." She shut off the stove and started chopping the fish from its bones.

"Nothing's a simple fix," Katniss said. "You know that."

"Yeah," Annie agreed, "I do." Through the window, she could see the silhouette of Johanna and Haymitch walking up from the beach, Johanna's arms full of vegetables from the suddenly-flourishing gardens. "But I guess some things are worth trying anyway." She took a knife from the block and handed it to Katniss, sliding the loaf of bread towards her. "Your choice, but this was a pretty long trip to make, just to turn around and leave again."

"Who says we're leaving?" Katniss asked. "Last I heard, this was Annie Odair's Home for Wayward Victors. That sounds pretty long term to me."

"Take a look around, girl on fire," Annie replied. "Anyone here look like the long term type to you?" She dropped her eyes to Peeta, lifting Finn over his head and making him giggle. "Well, except maybe that one."

Katniss's smile was small, but unbearably fond. "Except that one," she agreed quietly. They cut up the food in companionable silence, and when Haymitch, Johanna, Peeta, and Finn descended upon them, the kitchen whirled into a burst of activity so different from their stilted dinner earlier in the week that it hardly felt like the same house at all.  
______________

They fought the next night, long and loud and well-practiced, most of the yelling from Haymitch and Katniss, interspersed with cold pointed silences from Peeta. Annie and Johanna came back from a long walk with Finn to find the three of them on the porch sharing one of Haymitch's bottles between them, Peeta leaning back against Katniss's legs on the stairs, all of them quiet and moody, but with a sense that something had been settled between them.

They left for District 12 together a week later, Katniss with a bag full of new snares that Annie had taught her to make, Peeta with a bag of vegetables from Johanna's garden, and Haymitch with a bag of rum. He pulled Annie close as he left, pressing a kiss to the side of her head, and whispering a _thanks_ that covered more than she was even sure of. She squeezed him back, and told him that she and Finn would be calling him whether he wanted them to or not, mostly in the middle of the night when they got nightmares, and he only pretended to be grumpy about it as he ruffled Finn's hair.

Finn waved until they were out of sight down the road towards town, headed for the hospital, and from there, to the train station, and then he kicked to be let down, and immediately latched himself to Johanna's leg. 

"He's gotten so used to having people around," Annie said. "I guess he thinks if he hangs on, he can keep you from disappearing too."

"Haven't you taught your kid anything about the world?" Johanna asked her, and she dropped down to Finn's level. Annie felt a sick lurch in her stomach at what Johanna was about to say, but instead of anything about how holding on was only going to make things worse, she just reached out to touch Finn's hair, and said, "I'm not going anywhere, little man. Not right now."

He chattered something in reply, and Annie leaned down to scoop him up again to keep herself from looking at Johanna too closely. He burrowed against her and pressed his face to her neck, and she paced back and forth across the porch slowly until Johanna pressed a hand to her back, steering her to the stairs.

"Let's go check on the garden," she said, and Annie recognized a blatant attempt at distraction when she saw one, but she went along with it anyway, pausing at the bottom of the stairs as Johanna closed up the house, the two of them wandering towards the beach in companionable silence, broken only by the occasional pointing and chattering from Finn.

They spent some time in the garden, Finn helping Johanna pick tomatoes with clumsy fingers, but Annie's eyes were drawn by the sea, and as the two of them puttered through the plants, she found herself walking down towards the surf instead, until it was lapping at her feet. When she turned to look back, Johanna's eyes were on her, and she waved reassuringly.

"I'm not coming in after you," Johanna called in warning, and Annie smiled in return, but didn't reply. 

She stripped there on the sand, carefully piling her clothes up, and when the water hit her skin it was warm and familiar and nothing like the icy knives of sea that cut through her dreams. She emerged a while later, dripping and elated, to find Johanna and Finn sitting by her discarded clothes, Finn sitting in a shallow pool of water and flapping his hands at it gleefully.

She dried herself on her dress and pulled it on, then settled down beside them, watching as Johanna lay back against the sand, stretching luxuriously.

"I promised him, you know," she said abruptly, looking up at the sky instead of at Annie. "A long time ago, when things were really rough, in the Capitol. I said I'd keep an eye on you, if – " she cut herself off.

"That's why you came here?" Annie asked, and Johanna shrugged.

"Well, it sure as hell wasn't because Haymitch called me."

Annie smiled briefly. "You didn't have to, you know. Some promise you made years ago – "

"I know I didn't _have_ to," Johanna interrupted her. "But I did."

"We don't need – "

"Not everything's about what you need, Annie," she said with a hint of sharpness, and Annie nodded.

"No," she agreed quietly. "I know."

Johanna rolled onto her side to look at her. "But if you'd like me to go - " she said, half an offer and half a question, and Annie shook her head.

She let her mouth curve into a smile, even though it hurt. "He loved you, you know."

Johanna flinched. "I know," she said flatly.

"I think..." Annie said slowly, leaning back and taking in the moment, "I think he'd like this."

"You, me, Junior, and the ocean?" Johanna asked, looking up at her. "Sounds like the best thing that would have ever happened to him." A grin crept across her face. "Although imagine what the past few weeks would have been like with him in the house too?"

Annie cringed. "Are you kidding?" she asked. "Haymitch would have been out on his ass a day and a half after he arrived. The rest of you never would have even gotten here."

Johanna reached out to touch Finn's hair lightly, playing with the curls that were just starting to form. "I'm glad we did," she said.

"Yeah," Annie agreed quietly. "Me too."

They sat there for a long time, Johanna with an arm across her eyes, not quite asleep, Annie building castles in the sand with Finn, and late that night, when the house was dark and quiet, Johanna crept into Annie's room and tucked herself into bed beside her.

Johanna settled in with her back pressed against Annie instead of the couch cushions, and they fell asleep together to the sound of the tide coming in.


End file.
